Posted on 10/06/2014 7:56:14 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The Iron Dome has only sold to one foreign country, whose identity is being kept secret by both sides.
Normally, an advanced new weapon system with a battle-proven success rate of 90 percent would have global defense procurement agencies on the phone in minutes. But Israel's Iron Dome rocket interceptor is yet to prove a hit with buyers abroad.
In terms of operational achievement, tested on the Gaza, Lebanese and Egyptian Sinai fronts, Iron Dome is unrivaled in the arms market. However its uniqueness - developed for a particular threat in a particular place - also limits its appeal to countries dealing with more conventional military adversaries.
And Israel further curbs its potential client pool by not selling to countries with which it has no diplomatic ties - ruling out Gulf Arabs who, given their standoff with Iran, are looking into missile defense.
"It is arguable that Iron Dome is tailored to deal with the specific Israeli challenge of combating short-range rocket and missile threats by non-state actors," said Avnish Patel of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), who runs the British think-tank's annual ballistic missile defense conference.
So far the system - its effectiveness against Palestinian rocket fire demonstrated beyond doubt since 2011 - has been bought by just one foreign country. Its identity is being kept secret by both sides.
Iron Dome's manufacturer, state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd., would have been content to keep it on home turf and avoid the risk of classified technology leaks, said Yosi Druker, vice president of the company.
But with exports a critical prop for Israel's embattled defence budget - the country sells abroad about 80 percent of the weaponry it develops, earning $6.5 billion a year - finding foreign customers for Iron Dome was seen as a natural next step.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
Who else is getting bombarded by rockets on a daily basis?
South Korea or Japan.
Ukraine?
Japan does not face a threat of battlefield weapons (mortars/rockets) unlike South Korea.
"It is arguable that Iron Dome is tailored to deal with the specific Israeli challenge of combating short-range rocket and missile threats by non-state actors," said Avnish Patel of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), who runs the British think-tank's annual ballistic missile defense conference.
Given that Israel is one of the most unpopular nations in the world it is hardly surprising that they would have few eligible customers given the above requirements placed on potential customers.
Intercepting $200 dumb rockets with million dollar missiles has a very limited utility. Perhaps SK could take a look at it, as a means of protecting Seoul, until the facing NK hillsides could be hit with deep penetrators or tactical nukes.
Anyone else facing those attacks would be expected and even encouraged to retaliate massively and put an end to the evil. It is only Israel that is expected to shoot down incoming missiles daily, while being careful not to hit the schools and hospitals from which the attacks are launched. The Jewish State is the only country suffering from the antisemitic hatred running rampant among a powerful and vocal majority of the political left.
Any other democracy, {except those Joose} would be expected too, and assisted in, the utter destruction of the group that was attacking them on a daily basis.
Those 7 million dirty Joose, have no right to protect their lives, and have no right to destroy any of the 365,000,000 mooselimbs that are murdering their children, on a daily basis. {s/off, for those of you that couldn't figure it out, and that especially includes the admins}.
Pontiac wrote:
And Israel further curbs its potential client pool by not selling to countries with which it has no diplomatic ties - ruling out Gulf Arabs who, given their standoff with Iran, are looking into missile defense.
“It is arguable that Iron Dome is tailored to deal with the specific Israeli challenge of combating short-range rocket and missile threats by non-state actors,” said Avnish Patel of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), who runs the British think-tank’s annual ballistic missile defense conference.
Given that Israel is one of the most unpopular nations in the world it is hardly surprising that they would have few eligible customers given the above requirements placed on potential customers.
Well, would you want to sell it to, say, UAE, or Kuwait, and have them sell it to Saudi Arabia, or Iran even, and then have it deconstructed and evaluated to figure out how to overcome it that much easier and quicker?
That was kind of my point
They put those restrictions on the possible customers to protect their technology.
Which is something we used to do but not so much anymore because our government has become much too much the crony corporate capitalist state.
The Israelis are much more sensible than the US in this regard.
It is just that the Israelis have few friends in the world that they can trust to sell such weapons
Phalanx works against things as small as mortar shells so putting those on a mobile mount is probably a decent alternative.
> The Iron Dome has only sold to one foreign country, whose identity is being kept secret by both sides.
Robert357 (above comment) suggests South Korea. Israel wouldn’t sell it to anyone in the Middle East, even if there were willing buyers, and the only ones with a use for it would be the small Gulf and Arabian states.
no one should be selling this system .
Some things we should keep tightly to ourselves
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